The PLL Program

About the PLL (2009-2024)

The Playful Learning Lab (PLL) at the University of St. Thomas was an interdisciplinary research group led by Dr. AnnMarie Thomas. Our team of undergraduate research students, affiliated educators, and community partners work together to create engaging, hands-on experiences for PK-12 students and educators, with a focus on fun.

The PLL’s work revolves around our 3 Lab rules: be kind, clean up your messes, and play well with others. As a group that focuses on teaching others and on education initiatives, the PLL understands the value of learning from others. We host “play dates” that create Lab visibility and bring together educators to discuss their successes and challenges. In addition to the many ways our projects impact the community, participation in the PLL also transforms its student members. Lab members regularly publish and present scholarly papers on Lab projects (CHI, ASEE, NIME, and TEDtalks, to name a few), and they gain hands-on experience working across a variety of disciplines.